The director of the WLU Press will now report to the university librarian. The Press will become a part of the new vision for a Library Cultural and Learning Commons, and will aim to become a financially sustainable press without subsidy from the university. MIT, Stanford, Purdue and the University of Michigan are some of the schools that have also undergone a library-press integration.

The partnership was the result of a proposal prepared by a committee, led by Laurier’s librarian Gohar Ashoughian, acting associate vice president of research, Donna Kotsopoulos, and Brian Henderson, director of the WLU Press.

“WLU Press has a long and valued reputation at our institution, nationally and beyond,” Kotsopoulos said. “It is renowned across Canada, and I am excited to see the possibilities for the Press going forward.”

A significant amount of research went into the proposal, and included consultations with Laurier administrators, team members and library and university press administrators at major institutions across the country and in the United States.

“Partnering with the Library will enhance our mutual abilities to pursue new models of scholarly communication, engage with the challenges of the digital information environment, and support the research enterprise through the publication process,” Henderson said. “We will continue to publish books in our areas of strength, tightly focusing our list to most effectively engage with both the scholarly community and the marketplace, while actively pursuing innovative approaches to publishing and new partnerships.”